The Siege at Ruby Ridge

To my everlasting embarrassment as an American citizen, the stark injustice of the Ruby Ridge Incident somehow initially slipped by me. For some reason, it took the Waco Massacre to open my eyes and make me realize that our suddenly and scarily militarized police agencies--both federal and local--had but one enemy, and it was us. Although this progression has continued through the tragedy of 9/11, which just happened to give our legislators the perfect excuse to pass laws that shredded our inalienable Constitutional protections, a disappointingly small number of citizens seemed to have grasped what is going on.

That's why although the albeit imperfect "Siege of Ruby Ridge" is far from a great historical drama, it may well be an important one. If it smacks just a handful of still-clueless citizens over the head, it will be worth people's time.

I was actually surprised at how much this film got right. Certainly it was true that Vicki Weaver was the driving force behind the apocalyptic beliefs in the family. Despite his portrayal in the movie, Randy Weaver was far from a dim, subservient religious follower of Vicki, and he would not leave the major decisions regarding his family's fate to his traumatized young daughter. My main complaint would be the over-the-top portrayal of the Weaver family as obnoxious, bible-thumping, jackbooted Neo-NAZI wingnuts. Sharpening their tongues in preparation to lie about the Davidians and David Koresh, the national media did their best to simply repeat all federal agency statements that portrayed the Weavers as just the kind of neighborhood family that needs to be lined up and shot. The Weavers were far from the typical American family, but they were American citizens with the right to be left alone--a fact which the media conveniently chose to ignore.

There is a documentary film about this incident that centers on a grown-up and very appealing Rachael Weaver, along with commentary from the still irascible Randy, called "Legend of Ruby Ridge." Hearing Rachael fondly reminisce about her childhood on that mountain (which she now owns), makes the movie version seem downright ludicrous.

I don't normally express my views or opinions about fact based movies, but the subject matter of this particular film "The Siege at Ruby Ridge" moved me. Having not paid attention to the events of Ruby Ridge at the time, to my shame, I was curious enough on a Sunday afternoon to watch the movie. At the end of the film I was convinced that either the writers and producers were overly biased towards the Weaver family and were attempting to stir up the general population with their interpretation of the siege, or, and more disturbing, the movie was a true representation. After a few hours of research I was able to conclude that the scenes accurately portrayed events with a minimal amount of poetic license. The actors were emotional and convincing and I grieved with them.

I count myself as among the conservative, (mostly) sheltered, white collar Americans, comfortable in the daily concept of living in a free democracy, protected by our constitution, and generally content with life. A highly emotional, fact based movie like this is powerful enough in it's content to shatter that illusion. And while I choose to believe that the events outlined in the movie were the sad tragic results of a huge (but hopefully unintentional) error in judgment by an imperfect government, the concern that it might not have been...lingers.....

A faithful adaptation of the excellent book, "Every Knee Shall Bow", which documented the tragedy of the Ruby Ridge incident. The first half of the movie introduces the Weaver family and friends and sets the scene for the dramatic, heartbreaking confrontation in the second half. Halfway through, one is made to feel glad the Weavers are not your neighbor. But by the end one is overwhelmed by the murderous injustice the Weavers suffer at the hands of the Federal Government. Excellent acting helps portray the Weavers as real human beings with faults and virtues instead of as devil or martyr cardboard cutouts.

The Ruby Ridge incident went largely unnoticed by the American Public until the exact same team of FBI agents were involved in the burndown of Waco a mere eight months later. This film does an excellent job of introducing the complex situation at Ruby Ridge to anyone who is still unaware of what happened there.

The following review reveals parts of the plot.

This movie showed that federal agents had what it took to shoot a 14-year-old boy in the back, gun down his pet dog, and snipe a woman holding a baby. The incident should sow "dissent" not the movie. If you can watch an incident like Ruby Ridge occur and still feel the system is great than you better take a good look at yourself.

Although Mr. Weaver and his family were extremists in some of their beliefs, they were and those of them that are still alive are still American citizens. And as such, they have certain inalienable rights. Rights wrongfully denied to them, such as trial by jury not a government death squad. In both real event and the movie, the federal agents illegally altered the rules of engagement and basically tried to avoid negotiations until they had to negotiate. They employed a shoot first and well there were no questions later. Being told that they "can and should shoot on sight any armed adult". There was no distinction made between armed adults walking around or armed adults pointing guns and federal agents. Just shoot on sight any armed adult.

However in the end justice was partly done in that Mr. Weaver and his friend were acquitted. Mr. weaver received roughly 3 million dollars in a settlement with the government. But those trigger-happy federal agents were never brought to justice.

Remember that federal agents have extensively more training when compared to local and state law enforcement agents. And as seen in the movie, federal not state or local law enforcement agents committed these heinous and atrocious acts. People with high levels of training, and they claim that they aren't to blame. They wrongfully and unconstitutionally altered rules of engagement. In essence declaring open season and giving their agents hunting licenses.

This movie or more so the criminal act committed by the government against the weavers shows/showed how much the government respects/ed its citizens and their alleged rights.

At first, I did not want to sit through this movie. I thought that it was going to be a completely religious movie from beginning to end. I had no idea what was in store. I didn't remember any of the siege itself. I was 15 when it happened. So I went to the internet and looked it up. It was indeed a true story. One that definately should have been told. True, I didnt want to sit through 4 hours of the movie, but it really was worth it. I would definately recommend it to friends to see!